To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

1365 words - 6 pages

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is an influential novel with a number of characters such as Jean Louise Finch (also known as Scout), Jem Finch, Bill, Calpurnia, Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell, Bob Ewell, and Boo Radley. Each character had his or her unique role in the story. It was evident who played the major and the minor roles and who were the protagonist and the antagonist. I became fonder of the major protagonists because not only did they have good qualities, but I was told the most about them. As the story progressed and I learned more and more about the characters, it became easier to choose my favorites.
There were characters as I described before ...view middle of the document...

The only thing I did not like about Atticus was the way he would let his kids run around the neighborhood unsupervised. It did not seem like he raised them to be very cautious.
Scout was another character I found likeable. She may have been immature in some ways especially in the way she started fights but I enjoyed seeing her change over the course of the novel. I like the confidence she shows when she starts fights with others. Her tomboy attitude is entertaining and quite likeable. It’s admirable that she does her own thing and wears overalls while other girls were dresses. Furthermore, Scout is presented as a very intelligent little girl. She knows how to read before even going to school and is able to learn lessons that some people don’t learn until they are much older. I can’t help but find the amount of things she understands by the end of the book very impressive. Jem is similar in the way that he is very intelligent. He becomes very much like Atticus and has many similar qualities such as the urge to protect the harmless. An example of this is when he stops Scout from killing the roly-poly. There weren’t many things unlikeable about Jem and Scout. His inability to control his anger at times in the novel can be unlikeable. Mrs. Dubose didn’t really deserve to have her garden ruined.
Dill was also a likeable character. He was innocent and had an active imagination. He never did anything particularly wrong to anyone in which he would be unlikeable. Dill is not as major a character as the others. He is only present in the summers and does not participate much in the major events that unfold. Dill does not develop as a character very much and the reader is not too drawn to him because of this. There were some unlikeable qualities and situations regarding him nonetheless. He was sometimes unlikeable when he made poor decisions such as ones to run away or when he became overly fascinated with Boo Radley. Dill was too interested in the rumors and stories of Boo Radley and clung on to that interest whilst Jem and Scout moved away from it. Calpurnia is likeable as well. She is very helpful to the Finch family and she serves as a motherly figure to them in their mother’s absence. I like that she won’t give into the kids and she is strict with them at times. However, I do not like that she speaks differently when around African Americans. I think she should speak intelligently if she wants to. Speaking differently with different people can be bothersome and she should flaunt her intelligence and not hide it.
Tom Robinson is a character I felt a great amount of sympathy for. He was a...

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